Nganasan language
Encyclopedia
Nganasan language is a language
of the Nganasan people
. In 2002 it was spoken by 500 out of 830 Nganasan people in the southwestern and central parts of the Taymyr Peninsula
.
of the Uralic language family
(Janhunen 1998). There are two main dialect
s, Avam and Vadeyev .
s, two so called diphthongoids (with the status of diphthongs, i.e. /ⁱa/ and /ᵘa/), probably no diphthongs (but vowelsequences), and about twenty consonant
phoneme
s.
One of the main features of Nganasan is the consonant gradation
, which concerns the consonant phonemes b, t, k, s (sʼ) and their nasal combinations mb, nt, ŋk, ns.
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
of the Nganasan people
Nganasan people
The Nganasans are one of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. They are the northernmost of the Samoyedic peoples, living on the Taymyr Peninsula by the Arctic Ocean. Their territory is part of Krasnoyarsk Krai. Their "capital" is the settlement of Ust-Avam...
. In 2002 it was spoken by 500 out of 830 Nganasan people in the southwestern and central parts of the Taymyr Peninsula
Taymyr Peninsula
The Taymyr Peninsula is a peninsula in the Far North of Russia, in the Siberian Federal District, that forms the northernmost part of mainland Eurasia and Asia...
.
Classification
Nganasan is the most divergent language of the Samoyedic branchSamoyedic languages
The Samoyedic languages are spoken on both sides of the Ural mountains, in northernmost Eurasia, by approximately 30,000 speakers altogether....
of the Uralic language family
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
(Janhunen 1998). There are two main dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s, Avam and Vadeyev .
Grammar
Phonetic features of the Nganasan language include eight vowelVowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s, two so called diphthongoids (with the status of diphthongs, i.e. /ⁱa/ and /ᵘa/), probably no diphthongs (but vowelsequences), and about twenty consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s.
One of the main features of Nganasan is the consonant gradation
Consonant gradation
Consonant gradation is a type of consonant mutation, in which consonants alternate between various "grades". It is found in some Uralic languages such as Finnish, Estonian, Northern Sámi, and the Samoyed language Nganasan. In addition, it has been reconstructed for Proto-Germanic, the parent...
, which concerns the consonant phonemes b, t, k, s (sʼ) and their nasal combinations mb, nt, ŋk, ns.
Orthography
The Cyrillic-based alphabet was devised in the 1990s:| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Д д | Е е | Ё ё | Ж ж |
| З з | И и | Й й | ’’ | К к | Л л | М м | |
| Н н | О о | Ө ө | П п | Р р | С с | Ç ç | |
| Т т | У у | Ү ү | Ф ф | Х х | Ц ц | Ч ч | Ш ш |
| Щ щ | Ъ ъ | Ы ы | Ь ь | Э э | Ә ә | Ю ю | Я я |
Literature
- Wagner-Nagy, Beáta: Chrestomathia Nganasanica. (Studia Uralo-Altaica : Supplementum 10) Szeged, 2002, 306 p. ISBN 963-482-588-5
- Katzschmann, Michael: Chrestomathia Nganasanica : Texte – Übersetzung – Glossar – Grammatik , Bearbeitung der Нганасанская фольклорная хрестоматия zusammengestellt von Kazis I. Labanauskas unter Berücksichtigung des Словарь нганасанско–русский и русско–нганасанский. Norderstedt, 2008, 604 p. ISBN 978-3-8370-1121-0
External links
- Ethnologue report for Nganasan
- Endangered Languages of Indigenous Peoples of Siberia: The Nganasan Language
- The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire: The Nganasans
- Comparative Nenets–Nganasan dictionary (with Russian and English equivalents)
- Nganasan multimedia dictionary
- German–Nganasan glossary
- Nganasanica